Ouendan 2 Is Go!

That last song on Hard is driving me insane. Doesn't help that it's a godawful track.

Is Glamorous Sky the only good track in the game?

I'm clearly in the minority here, but I'm of the less-than-shared-opinion that Ouendan 2's soundtrack is just as good, if not better than the first. Maybe it helps that I've become so musically invested in the game, but then who doesn't become invested just by the very nature of the gameplay? No, I really do dig the songs themselves. It's certainly more varied between its ratio between rock and pop, from the hip yet honeyed Kibun Jojo, to the power-rock ballad of Glamorous Sky, and the jazzy-brass hooks of Julia no Shoshin. That mind-sticking axe grind chipping in Real Life Real Heart? The dance-infused beat element of Music Hour? The hip-hop goodness of Shounen Heart that's currently battling Ouendan's Kokoro Odoru for my personal better? And Zoku.... fast has it become my ultimate guilty pleasure track to play, both in and out of the game.

So, anyone else kinda upset about the announcement that EBA characters can be downloaded into Ouendan 2? I was hoping they'd make it in, but the fact that you have to go to a download station in Japan to do it seems a bit harsh. I mean, iNiS must have known that Ouendan 2 would be imported in mass quantities, so why screw importers over? Hopefully they'll announce an alternate way of getting the characters in the future.

Angela wrote:

Yeah, the music is awesome. I don't get the hate.

I guess I'm in the minority, too, because I immediately took a liking to most of the songs in the game. By comparison, most of the tracks from the original Ouendan actually took much longer to grow on me. I also like that there are a greater number of songs with female vocals, which the original was sorely lacking in.

The only song that I don't quite like is "Shounen Heart," partly because "Kibun Joujou" has a better rap, but also because of that dastardly final section that doesn't match the music at all >_< Oh, and I'm not crazy about the cover of "Bambino," though I love the original and I do think the song works well in the game.

So, anyone else kinda upset about the announcement that EBA characters can be downloaded into Ouendan 2? I was hoping they'd make it in, but the fact that you have to go to a download station in Japan to do it seems a bit harsh. I mean, iNiS must have known that Ouendan 2 would be imported in mass quantities, so why screw importers over? Hopefully they'll announce an alternate way of getting the characters in the future.

Screw the Agents..... there's BOWL CAT!! I guess there was truth when rom hackers found the sound byte file for Agent J. So that means the characters are already programmed into the game, and Nintendo and iNiS are only now making them accessible via the download. Maybe an Action Replay code or online save file will soon become available?

Aw man, that sucks. It really does. I'd love to have the EBA agents in there. In fact, I was really surprised there seemed to be no crossover. I really hope there turns out to be some other way to unlock these guys.

Not only do the Divas show up, but also Chieftain and Spin on their respective difficulty modes of Hard and Easy. All the Agents are skin swap, so everything other than the in-gameplay character models remain the same, including the opening sequence for each stage, voices, choreographed moves, and the occasional screen pop-in of the Ouendan faces. As you can see by the video, in the case of SSAY, the blue team leader is replaced by Bowl Cat.

So do you get to choose to swap them in, or once you download it do they permanently replace the Ouendan crew? And is this one of those things where if you shut off the system you lose the download? I'm tempted to try finding a download station.

So do you get to choose to swap them in, or once you download it do they permanently replace the Ouendan crew? And is this one of those things where if you shut off the system you lose the download? I'm tempted to try finding a download station.

You should still be able to choose between the EBA and Ouendan crew. Apparently, a new button selector shows up on the main menu -- much like the Hidden Mode -- which you can toggle on and off.

And the download should be permanent. For those who are relying on the AR code, though, it's said that you need to activate the auto-save from somewhere in the game. That's easily achievable by simply changing a setting like left-hand/right-hand mode in Options.

Tried out the code and it worked (*hugs Action Replay*). It turns out that the EBA crew will replace both red and blue Ouendan teams, except during the final two stages. In those, the blue backup members will be present, but the team leader will be replaced by Neko the cat. The neat thing is, depending on the difficulty level, Neko will be sporting a wig that mirrors the usual blue team leader's hair.

And Zoku.... fast has it become my ultimate guilty pleasure track to play, both in and out of the game.

So I've only just begun watching the music videos for these songs, and so far, "Zoku" has been my favorite. Massively entertaining, in its full campy glory; is this how baseball is going to be played in the future?

"Real Life Real Heart" is cute 'n trippy, and Mika Nakashima's performance in "Glamorous Sky" is energetic and fun to watch. Next I'll check out "Music Hour" and "Samurai Blue."

Gamasutra has a new interview up with Yano from Microsoft's Gamefest event. As usual, it's an intelligent and engaging read, with Yano this time touching base on the current state of music games, his stake in MS, East/West developer relations, and the international phenomenon of EBA/Ouendan:

The latest issue of Nintendo Power has another article that was demanding enough for me to make a scan, thereby allowing me to continue spreading the good word. It's a feature on the best "Japan-Only DS Games That Every True Nintendo Fan Should Know About." Guess which two games head up the list?

Agreed, though my anal, obsessive compulsive self is still most impressed that they remembered the first Ouendan was like the only game to have the "Nintendo DS" on the label with a black background instead of white and kept that little quirk for the second title.